Overview :

From automobile navigation systems to 911 emergency service for cell phones, geo-location and navigation systems are quickly becoming ubiquitous. Two different but complementary schemes – GPS and signal-strength fingerprinting – have emerged as the dominant technologies for geo-location and the firm is delighted to have had the opportunity to prepare seminal patents in both technologies.

Satellite-Based Navigation/Assisted GPS

GPS was designed by the military to be highly accurate and operable in an adverse environment, but it was not designed to be inexpensive, fast, or useable indoors. This hampered the deployment of GPS in consumer products, such as automobiles and cell phones.

In this context, Giovanni Vannucci and Robert Richton of Bell Laboratories invented “Assisted GPS.” Assisted GPS has revolutionized satellite-based navigation with a fundamentally new kind of GPS receiver that works indoors, is exceedingly fast, is inexpensive, and is small enough to fit in a cell phone. A multi-billion dollar industry has arisen to manufacture Assisted GPS receivers.

Signal-Strength Fingerprinting

At one point, all prior art geo-location systems, including GPS, require hardware to triangulate the location of a wireless terminal. One of our clients pioneered the startling idea that the location of a wireless terminal can be determined in software only and without the deployment of hardware for triangulation.

The idea, commonly called signal-strength fingerprinting, is fast, accurate, incredibly inexpensive, and works with legacy cell phones. The largest wireless service providers in the world are deploying signal-strength fingerprinting systems one of our clients.

Our professionals have prepared and filed an entire portfolio to protect signal-strength fingerprinting. Click on a link below to see our work in this area: